I created the award-winning Insomnia Radio Network in 2004 and was globally recognized as an early podcasting pioneer. In 2006, Insomnia Radio was awarded Best Podcast by Newsweek Online, and the network was praised in the pages of the New York Times, Wired and CMJ.

Since then, I’ve been entrenched in the video game industry and fascinated with the rapid evolution of the technology surrounding it.

I'm addicted to producing professional web content which aims to simultaneously educate and entertain. My column at Forbes is the culmination of these experiences, and I’ll bring my unique voice, background and skillset to deliver memorable content.

I also contribute gaming and technology features to outlets like PCWorld and HotHardware.

Stay in touch with me on Facebook and Twitter. Reach out to me with questions by emailing jevangelho@gmail.com

“We’re going to need a lot of therapists specializing in virtual reality withdrawals.” That was my first thought after reluctantly handing Oculus VR’s new Crystal Cove prototype (one of four in existence) back to the representative. We’ll talk about the unmatched immersion and the genius technological advancements in a bit, but that initial thought drove home just how powerful and profoundly important the Oculus Rift headset will be not just for video games, but for any industry that chooses to adopt the technology.

12 months ago I tried a version of the Oculus Rift adorned with duct tape and foam. I was forced to abruptly end the demo 3 minutes in after “sim sickness” set in and my stomach threatened a messy revolt. This year I went from nauseous, cautious skeptic to an enthusiastic believer. That’s because Oculus VR’s weeks-old Crystal Cove prototype is eons ahead of what the press demoed even 6 months ago at E3.

For the new Crystal Cove prototype (named after a beach down the street from the Oculus VR offices), the team was focused on reducing “full loop latency.” That’s the time it takes for you to move your head, get picked up by the tracker, have the computer interpret that data, render an image, and then push it to the display. The lower that gets, the more realistic the experience becomes — and the more likely it is that your brain will believe it.

Everything In Its Right Place

“We always knew where you were looking, but didn’t necessarily know where your head was,” explains Joe Chen, Product Lead at Oculus. Imagine you’re walking around in the mountains and you come to a cliff. You carefully lean over to look down,but instead of seeing a terrifyingly awesome vertical drop, the cliff moves with you. Not only would that be jarring, but it tears the immersion away and your brain instinctively knows that something is seriously wrong. So it became crucial for the team at Oculus to solve this problem.

That solution is positional tracking. The Crystal Cove prototype now uses a smattering of infrared LEDs on the visor, tracked by a small camera mounted to face the player. Combined with the accelerometer and some advanced predictive tracking, the Oculus Rift can now accurately sense where your head is in a virtual space.

Unsurprisingly, the first game demo was designed to reinforce the advantages of positional tracking and shatter the mold of the Oculus Rift being meant for only cockpit sims and first person shooters. I found myself inside a living board game, a 3rd person tower defense map created by Epic Games. Ogres marched down a preset walkway beset with craggy rocks and hidden coves. A lava river flowed underneath, occasionally shooting up fireballs and licking the walkway with flames. One of my first inclinations was to lean forward and flick an ogre off the walkway to a fiery death. (I couldn’t actually do that, but it illustrates how instantly immersed I was.)

From a sitting position on my throne, I was able to lean forward and peer around corners or look inside crevices. I could focus on a single corner to get a better understanding of enemy movement and time my arrow volleys. This adds an awesome layer of gameplay; what if my opponent had placed traps in these hidden areas? It could usher in a realistic “fog of war” effect for strategy and war games. This may sound lame to hardcore gamers, but this could even be a boon for hidden object games.

By the way, if you’re worried about the new camera and infrared LEDs not playing nice with your home lighting environment, know this: The Oculus engineers wanted to demo the prototype in a covered, shaded area. It turns out the meeting room was directly under multiple fixtures on the convention center ceiling, dumping out all kinds of super bright spectrum light. It still worked flawlessly, and this is early hardware.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

I own a developer’s kit and one thing I definitely hope they fix is what I call the “porthole effect”. The Oculus Rift experience is as good as everyone says it is, however, you cannot escape the perception that you are viewing your virtual world through a scuba mask, as though you were in a submarine and viewing the underseas world through a porthole.

This is due to the eye relief and the eye cups showing up in your peripheral vision as a black band or “scuba mask.” That being said, I can’t wait for the release of the consumer version.

I got the same demo you did (I was there with the CNET crew, you can see my head in their photos), and the improvement from last year to this year was profound. I think I was too excited during the Eve demo, as whipping my head around so much made me queezy. Even so, I will definitely buy one at launch.